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N.Y. FCT Law § 838

This is the official text of N.Y. FCT Law § 838, part of New York’s FCT Law — part of the compiled statutory law of New York, published by the state as "FCT Law." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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Petitioner and respondent may have friend or relative present

Official statutory text

§ 838. Petitioner and respondent may have friend or relative present.\nUnless the court shall find it undesirable, the petitioner shall be\nentitled to a non-witness friend, relative, counselor or social worker\npresent in the court room. This section does not authorize any such\nperson to take part in the proceedings. However, at any time during the\nproceeding, the court may call such person as a witness and take his or\nher testimony. Unless the court shall find it undesirable, the\nrespondent shall be entitled to a non-witness friend, relative,\ncounselor or social worker present in the court room in the event such\nrespondent is not represented by legal counsel. This section does not\nauthorize any such person to take part in the proceedings. However, at\nany time during the proceeding, the court may call such person as a\nwitness and take his or her testimony.\n

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.